Dark Carnival
by MadDub
Summary: John Egbert and his friends have only been to one other carnival, but they were pretty sure it was nothing like this.


**I know that I keep opening stuff up with apologies, but I'm going to do so again anyways. Sorry for the poor Dave characterization. I'm just not cool enough to write Dave properly. **

**There are going to be a LOT of couples (like holy crap, man) so here are just the humans':**

**John Egbert x Karkat Vantas (Black)**

**John Egbert x Gamzee Makara (Red)**

**John Egbert x Vriska Serket (Pale)**

**Dave Strider x Terezi Pyrope (Red)**

**Dave Strider x Tavros Nitram (Pale)**

**Rose Lalonde x Kanaya Maryam (Red)**

**Rose Lalonde x Eridan Ampora (Black)**

**Jade Harley x Feferi Peixes (Pale)**

**There will definitely be more, but for now that's all your getting. I really hope I don't come back and delete all of this because I'm wondering if it's really dorky have my couples posted beforehand.**

* * *

John Egbert was practically bouncing with excitement.

The small town he lived in hadn't had a carnival since he was still a toddling little thing that had to hold his father's hand to cross the street, but from what he'd read and seen on TV, carnivals were typically magical events that blew your socks off and took your breath away.

He didn't remember the last one he'd been too, but his father had assured him this one wasn't the same at any rate—which made it all the better, because John really wanted a new, mind-blowing experience today.

Luckily, he'd been able to beg his dad into letting me attend the event alone save his three best friends, who all stood around him, looking around at the darkly striped tents curiously, murmuring about how the tents on TV were usually brightly-colored rainbow vomit and how different these canvases were in comparison. Or, rather, they all did except for Dave, who was much too cool to gush about how awesome the carnival was.

"I can't believe I've never heard of this carnival before . . ." Rose muttered, glancing about them at the black and purple decorations, "Especially considering how unique it all looks. One would have thought such a carnival would be well known."

Dave shrugged, "Maybe it sucks."

"It still would have been well known, I'd think, if only for sucking." she replied coolly.

"Who cares about how many other people know it?" John asked, shrugging it off easily and beaming at the games and stalls all around them, "We're at the first carnival this town's seen in _years! _We should be busy having too much fun to think right now!"

"That's the spirit, John!" Jade cheered, pumping a fist into the air.

Rose and Dave exchanged exasperated looks as the other two wooted and ran around like two children on a sugar high, giggling at things that weren't humorous and grinning like the lunatics the blondes were beginning to suspect they were. But then again, both John and Jade had done many things much more embarrassing than what they were doing at the moment, so they let it slide without problem, simply following behind like two dutiful parents watching over said children with a sugar high.

"Have you noticed," Rose stated once her other friends had finally calmed down somewhat, "That no one is running any of the stalls currently?"

"Hmm?" John questioned, glancing around them to realize she was right. The stalls were all barren, despite the thin crowd of people leisurely strolling about, eyeing the games and attractions curiously as they went. It was a bit odd, but he could only assume the staff were either too lazy or were off doing something more important. "Hey, isn't there some sort of show they're doing? Maybe it's going on right now!"

Jade was already shaking her head, "No, that doesn't start until later. Like, half an hour later. But good guess!"

"Oh," John deflated.

"Well, if we're just going to stand around anyway, we might as well see what this creep show has to eat. I'm in the mood for some cottony sweets to melt some sick puddles onto my salivating mouth glands," Dave said, picking a random direction and beginning to walk in his cool kid style.

They spent quite a while trying to find a stall that sold food, and even more time finding one with someone inside to run it. But they eventually did, though the employee stood so far back in the shadows they weren't able to catch a glimpse of them, not even enough to tell their gender, and when their food was handed to them, they spotted long, white plastic gloves covering any flesh that may have been exposed during the action.

Though a little weirded out, they all blew it off, as the carnival itself was bizarre enough to have strange employees, and ate their greasy carnival foods, though John noticed his tasted a bit . . . weird.

He'd never eaten any carnival food before, however, and so he chalked it up to normal fair/carnival eatery and continued digging in.

When they were done, they immediately began heading for the largest tent on the lot, where they presumed the main show to be. From what they knew, it would be something of a circus, but without any animals, or at least, without any _normal _animals. Honestly, John wasn't really sure what to expect, but so far, it was all astounding and exotic and surprising, so he was pretty certain what was to come would be even better.

Unfortunately, they had to pay a fee in order to enter and see the actual show, and poor Egbert apparently lost his wallet a few days back, and so had limited cash with him. Suffice to say, he didn't have enough to see the show.

"Sorry, dude," Dave said with a shrug, sliding past him into the tent.

Jade and Rose gave him sympathetic looks, but none of his friends had brought enough money for food and the entry of two people, so he watched them go with an abandoned puppy look, mouth drawn in a disappointed frowned. He had really wanted to watch the show! And the fact that he'd have to wait outside the tent by himself with no company save the bullish bouncer that kept his face hidden beneath the shadows cast by the entrance of the tent, hands carefully gloved and arms and legs covered by long sleeves of cloth.

He turned and wandered away dejectedly, circling the tent as he heard the speakers inside come to life, envy thick in his mind. "Honk! Ladies and bros, welcome to the Dark Carnival show! I hope y'all mother****ers brought yourself some Faygo and slime pie, because this is going to be a long, mother****in' _dazzling _show!"

John started at the use of the "F" word, but only looked back at the tent longingly. Why couldn't he watch the "dazzling" show too? Stupid finances.

He was about to go sulk off somewhere when he heard a very different, rather angry voice spitting curse words like they were candy. "Equis, let me back in! If I don't hurry, I won't be able to go on in time!"

"Lord Gamzee gave me strict orders not to let anyone—"

"**** him! And **** you, too! I need to get inside in order to make it in time for my act! Now if you would _please_ step aside so I can get in and perform the duties given to me by 'Lord' shit-for-brains, I'd like to get my stuff together for my turn."

The crowds inside were oohing and awing over something, but John was now completely focused on the arguing voices nearby, inching just close enough to hear clearer without being visible to the voice owners.

"Why can't you just go around to the back so you're not seen?" Equis demanded irritably.

"That . . . ! Why the hell why I do that when I could go through the front entrance like a dignified damn person?! Am I the only person with a ****ing _thinkpan_ in this entire crew? Ugh. You lot all disgust me. Fine, if it'll make you happy, I'll go around to the shitty back entrance. **** you."

He heard rapid footsteps approaching, and panicking, he dove behind a crate, not daring to peek around it for fear of being caught eavesdropping. Luckily, those angry footsteps marched right on by, and after a few seconds, John followed them, wondering if he'd actually be able to sneak into the back and watch the carnival show from there. It was kind of wrong, and his dad would have probably scolded him for it, but he wanted to see it _so badly!_ Surely it was okay just this once, right?

John made sure to stay far enough away that he couldn't see the male stomping to the back entrance around the curve in the canvas, but close enough to be able to hear his angry mumblings to himself. When he heard a pause in the stomping, he quickly squatted, crawling behind a random barrel in the case that the guy he was following happened to look around the bend.

He heard what sounded like a tent flap opening, the rustling of cloth, and then no noise at all. Though he was sorely tempted to immediately jump up and follow, his more logical sense told him to wait at least twenty seconds before he brainlessly followed in order to make it harder for him to be caught. He counted the seconds down in his brain, and once he finally got to twenty, he crawled around the barrel until he found the tent flap, slipping inside on all fours, and instantly sinking to his belly once he was in, hoping the draw the least amount of attention possible.

With a start, he realized he was right under the seats circling a small ring like one might see at a circus, with two large wooden columns standing on either end of the ring in order to hold the tent up. There was a strange man wearing clown-like face paint and standing in the middle of the circle, with a thick, unruly mane of black hair, what appeared to be horns (probably fake) sprouting out of either side of his hair, his body tall and gangly, and dressed in a fine but somewhat Gothic black suit, trimmed in indigo and with an indigo bowtie and black top hat, his skin an odd, almost gray color—or so it looked under the dim lighting. His eyes also looked too dark, his irises almost the same color as his pupils, and the whites of his eyes didn't appear white at all! Instead, they looked almost . . . yellow. But John was sure he was probably just seeing things wrong.

Still, he couldn't help but grin excitedly at his own luck—to think, he had actually found a way to watch the show in the crowd with everyone else, in the perfect place to not get caught! The other employees shouldn't have any need to go back there unless they, too, had been shut out of the tent for whatever reason, but John had a good feeling that no more people would be coming in through that flap for the rest of the show.

"One more round of applause for Kanaya, the Rainbow Drinker!" the strange horned man shouted, earning a round of impressed applause from the audience.

Dang it! He'd missed something cool! Ugh.

"And now, ladies and bros, humans and trolls—" the man started, looking as though he were growing excited. His sickly-looking eyes glimmered with anticipation.

What even was a troll? Were they talking about those jerks who liked to "troll" people on online forums and stuff? John once had been trolled pretty hard by a group of kids on the Internet when he was younger, and still the mention of those kids made something in his gut churn and his blood boil.

"—It is time to introduce to you Tavros, the half robot!"

Half robot? That sounded _awesome!_ Was he going to have a laser eye? Two laser eyes? Would he be all unemotional and cyborg-like? What if he actually had bottled up emotions on the inside, and never realized they were real feelings?

What if his life was miserable and lonely and—

His thoughts were cut off by his own gasp as Tavros the half robot awkwardly shuffled into the room, earning many a startled breath and whistle.

Tavros had the same odd eyes and grayish skin the man—John supposed he was the ringmaster—did, as well as similar dark hair and horns, though this boy's horns were shaped differently and appeared to be a bit bigger than the other's.

His lower half was completely mechanical, without any sort of fabric or clothe to cover the monster of a machine that was his pelvis down, and though his gait was awkward, it seemed more out of nervousness than of difficulty moving.

All John could do was stare in amazement, fingers curling around one of the seats and eyes wide as he took a step closer.

"****in' work those miraculous legs, Tavbro!" The ringleader called with a crazed grin.

That smile made Egbert feel a bit uneasy, but he pushed his feelings aside as he was caught back into the shy half-robot's charm as the boy blushed (was his face actually flushing _brown_? No, no certainly not. It must have been the dim lighting combined with John's terrible view of the circus ring) and waved timidly at the crowd. A couple of girls did the typical girly "aww," while some of the younger audience seemed to wave back, or at least it looked like it from behind the stands.

Tavros paced the length of the circle, letting everyone have a good long look at him, smiling and waving shyly as he did. Though John wasn't attracted to men, he had to admit, the timid, awkward actions were pretty cute, and was probably one of the main reasons the half robot was participating in the show at all, even though the robot thing _was _kind of cool.

"Give us a miracle jump, little bro!" The clown-look-alike called.

Shifting a bit, Tavros slowed into a stop, making sure all eyes were on him before he squatted, metal legs folding beneath him, and suddenly sprung upwards, shooting so high the base of his metallic feet were on par with the ringleader's odd horns, before he fell down with a mighty crash, the sound resonating through the canvas tent.

He straightened himself and blushed darkly again when everyone cheered, waving with a shy smile, and jumped again, this time actually going a foot or two higher than the last time.

Everyone clapped and whistled appreciatively, and with a bow, Tavros was sent back behind a curtain supposedly separating back stage from the carnival ring.

"Humans, may I next present, the blind knife thrower, Terezi!" the ringleader called, gesturing dramatically towards the curtain, which seemed to almost twitch in response to his words, before drawing back enough to reveal the slender frame of a girl that looked like Tavros and the ringleader, but with pointed red shades covering her face, dark lipstick (John never did understand women and their fashion concepts), and a tight green-blue outfit that outlined her lanky body, sleeveless and shoeless as it was.

She waved and grinned devilishly at the audience, who clapped respectfully, watching her with a hungry curiosity as she easily made her way into the ring.

Another boy, again with the same eyes, skin, and dark hair of the others came out, face set into a scowl and a briefcase held gently in his arms, nubby horns almost nonexistent in his hair and outfitted in cherry red. He wore something akin to what modern warriors in the movies did, tight, mostly black, but trimmed in red. A dark hood was clinging to the back of his head, threatening to fall off, and fingerless gloves adorned his hands, as well as some badass combat boots on his feet and a pair violently colorful sickle that hung from his hips.

John thought he looked like a kickass spy or assassin, ready to drop in for the kill.

He opened up the briefcase he was holding, showing the audience the dangerous assortment of knives strapped inside, and placed in on the edge of the ring, kneeling next to it.

As he did, a large bull's-eye target rolled towards the ring from the other side of the curtain, enveloped in red and blue electricity that sparked and buzzed as it did, causing the audience to murmur and whisper amongst themselves excitedly.

How did they even _do_ that? John didn't know carnivals could do things like _this_! No wonder people liked them so much! He couldn't wait to see what else they had planned!


End file.
